Following the tragic mass shooting at Pulse nightclub in Orlando on Sunday, late-night hosts used their shows on Monday to pay their respects to the victims and to offer support for families in mourning. By sheer coincidence, Late Show host Stephen Colbert booked Fox News personality Bill O'Reilly weeks ago, and that made for an interesting segment since Colbert has had a long history of political disagreements with O'Reilly ranging from humorous to deftly serious. During Monday's discussion, the two opposing voices sparred over the nation's course of action in the wake of the largest mass shooting in U.S. history.
According to O'Reilly, the U.S. should enter an "all-out war" against ISIS in response to the shooting. "Congress should pass a declaration of war against Islamic terrorist groups," he said.
This move, O'Reilly added, would give the U.S. "far more latitude" to detain people. "FDR did it with the Japanese," O'Reilly noted. "Now I think he made a mistake but he did it."
After Colbert cautioned against this by drawing parallels to the nation's post-9/11 troubles in Iraq, O'Reilly remained unfazed. "It's time for America to step up its power and take care of these SOBs," he said.
While discussing the responses of both political parties' presumptive Presidential nominees, Colbert ultimately backed O'Reilly into a corner regarding what many deemed was an inappropriate response from Donald Trump to the Orlando shootings. "He's using this terrorism issue to bolster his popularity," O'Reilly said.
When asked by Colbert if the presumptive GOP nominee was using the attack as a "political tool," O'Reilly agreed. "That's what he's doing," he said.
Earlier in the show, Colbert spoke directly to the audience about the unsettling feeling of having delivered a similarly somber monologue before. "We each ask ourselves, 'What can you possibly say in the face of this horror?'" Colbert said. "But then sadly you realize you know what to say because it's been said too many times before."
